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  1. #1
    HI, have been reading these forums for quite a while and after eventually deciding i didnt have the skill or knowledge to build my own machine at the moment, have recently purchased a heiz S1400 CNC second hand, with very little mileage.

    It came with a computer with mach 3 already set up and so far i have been using it as is, without changing any settings

    The CNC came with an Auto Height setting puck that plugs into a terminal on the z axis gantry and i am suing mach3 to set the auto tool height.

    At first it was a little intermittent, ie sometimes it would work fine and sometimes it would not and i would have to gog the machine to a slightly different postition, however now it has stopped working completely, so that when the z should back off when touching the plate, it carries on going and i have to hit the emergency stop button, this is happening every time now.

    I have done some googling but have not found anything that i have either found to help or that i understand lol

    In Mach3 whilst looking at the diagnostics page the digitize led is on when the probe is not plugged in and goes off when i plug the probe in, the led stays off when the bit is touching the plate.

    Not sure if that info is any help, but might be a starting point

    Anyone have any ideas?

  2. #2
    oops, sorry about duplicate thread, i did not think it had posted

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by howser37 View Post
    oops, sorry about duplicate thread, i did not think it had posted
    No problem, I've removed the other one for you.

    When you plug-in the LED turns off - that’s how it should be as far as I know. The led should come on when you touch the puck with the probe, so I think there is a connection problem, the probing systems I know of are all basic in how they work, as in, all they really do is close a connection.

    I would have a good look at the wiring in the probe/puck and see if you can see anything adrift (lose connection), if the "probe" part of the system is simply the cutter, see if you can find out where/how the other side of the circuit is connected to the spindle.

    .Me
    Last edited by Lee Roberts; 10-06-2014 at 07:51 PM.
    .Me

  4. #4
    Hi Lee, i will take a look inside the puck again and see if i can see any problems, it is the kind with a plastic button that presses down in the middle with what looks like 3 arms sat on ball bearings inside, and i assume that when one of these arms is lifted off a ball bearing the circuit is broken and the digitize led should register, but it does nothing.

    So i assume it cant be related to the bit/spindle as there is no electrical contact there

    regards
    Adam

  5. #5
    cant see any problems inside the puck, but for some reason it is not turning the digitize led on when i break the contact either by hand or using the bit in the spindle grrrrr

  6. #6
    Best to start at the source and it's Possibly a lose connection on the breakout board anyway. Trace the wire back into the control box and see if you can identify the input it's using on the breakout board.
    Then to test the breakout board hasn't fried it's input take a short wire and place between the (+) input and Gnd(-) watching the digitise input in mach to see if toggles on/off.

    If it does then you know it's either the wire or puck. If not then you probably have a blown Input on the Breakout board.

  7. #7
    Thanks JAZZ, i will take a look at that tomorrow, it sounds plausible to me as it was working intermittently before it stopped working alltogether.

  8. #8
    Hi JAZZ, I set the probe to the z home/limit switch pin and sure enough when hitting the limit the digitize led changes, however when pressing the probe plate it does nothing.

    The probe plugs into this machine via what looks like 2 core speaker cable and it plugs into a small contol box mounted on the side of the gantry.

    I traced this back into the control box via a cable labeled as ST

    I just did a continuity test to make sure both sides of the wire were making it through the control box and to the computer, this is about as far as my electrical skill goes lol.

    Just so you know i was only using the auto detect in mach 3 as a means of testing, the digitize is setup on pin 15 and was when i bought the machine, the auto height worked when it was demonstrated to me and it has worked intermittently since and recently nothing.

    Unless i have changed some other setting which could affect it.

    I tried changing to low active on the pi as well, this makes the digitize come on when the probe is plugged in, so i assume it would make it go off if the probe was touched, but as usual there was nothing at all.

    PS. also with low active set the auto tool height acted very strangely by seeming to come down one step at a time.
    Last edited by howser37; 11-06-2014 at 09:48 PM.

  9. #9
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	stepcontrolhy_eng.pdf 
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ID:	12555Click image for larger version. 

Name:	engl.BetrAnl_HIGH_Z_S400_S720_S1000_HerstErkl..pdf 
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ID:	12556

    This is what i have re manuals and wiring, they are for a different model but listing but basically the same

  10. #10
    I forgot to say i also tested an edge finding probe that plugs in the same wayand the result was the same, no reaction to the touch off

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